The information age has produced an explosion of media for people to enjoy, whether a book, a video or audiocassette, a CD, or DVD, including music, movies, video games, etc. Keeping track of which titles a consumer has in their media library and where the physical media product for those titles is located can be challenging.
Systems to help home and other users catalog books, movies, and other media are known in the art. For example, there are a number of proprietary database applications that help users create databases to store and manage information about their collections. The information may be typed in, or even scanned from a barcode that is affixed to the product, as is done in large scale inventory control systems for libraries or retailers. In at least one application, the information may be obtained from online sources, such as library or retailer Web sites.
One of the problems with current systems is that they are typically standalone products requiring manual entry of information into a database about each title in a user's physical library or media inventory. The database resides on the user's computer, which can make it difficult to access remotely. The database may also not be readily transportable by the user. Moreover, the information in the database is only accurate and up-to-date if the user takes the time to maintain the database.
Another problem with known database catalogs is that there is no direct connection between the inventory information about a particular title and its current physical location (e.g., in a bookcase(s), CD tower(s), etc.). In addition, the user's physical library may be distributed amongst multiple geographic locations (e.g., different rooms in a home, both at a home and an office, at multiple homes, etc.).